New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS) Liverpool head coach Arne Slot confirmed that striker Alexander Isak, who signed for Liverpool for a British transfer record fee on deadline day, confirmed the Swedish striker will be confined to reduced minutes for the time being.
Isak forced a move away from Newcastle United and hence has not been playing competitive football since last season ended. He was not a part of Eddie Howe’s pre-season squad that toured South Asia and has not played a single minute in three league games this season.
Slot commended Swedish head coach Jon Dalhl Tomasson for his cautious approach by not playing Isak in the two games during the international break and confirmed he will be getting the same treatment by Liverpool, which will see the 25-year-old ease into the first team.
“First of all I think the Swedish manager, Jon Dahl Tomasson, deserves a big, big, big compliment because he gets one of the best, maybe the best striker in the world in and needs to play two very important games for his country, but understands if he would play him twice for 90 minutes the player would have probably been injured for multiple weeks. That is not always easy for a manager, that he takes care of the interest of the player, so he deserves a big compliment for that and we will treat Alex the same as they did.
“So, don’t expect him every single game 90 minutes on the pitch – that’s definitely not going to happen in the upcoming weeks. He missed a proper pre-season, I think he missed three or four months of team sessions, so now we have to build him up gradually with us playing so many games and [having] very little training time.
“So, that’s going to be a challenge but we’ve signed him not only for the upcoming two weeks, we’ve signed him, I think, for six years so this is what we have to keep in mind and what the fans have to keep in mind if they see that I take him off at a certain moment or I only bring him in for a small amount of minutes. That’s all for the long-term fitness of the player,” said Slot in his pre-game conference.
Slot also praised Harvey Elliott for his contribution to his Liverpool team after the midfielder completed a season-long loan move to Aston Villa on deadline day.
The 22-year-old was part of the Reds’ squad to lift the Premier League title last season under the head coach’s guidance on Merseyside. The triumph added to another previous title winners’ medal for Elliott, alongside his role in securing two Carabao Cup trophies, an FA Cup and the FA Community Shield
“I know everyone always talks about Mo [Salah], Virgil [van Dijk] and the others if we win the league. But players like him were definitely also the reason why we could win it [the Premier League], because he always was positive if he had to play five or 10 minutes he helped the team. That is partly the success of the team is the ones that don’t play that much have the right mindset. I think he is completely ready now to show the quality he has at Aston Villa,” said Slot.
–IANS
aaa/
